ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS PAUL VI
TO THE AMBASSADOR OF NICARAGUA
TO THE HOLY SEE*

Friday, 20 June 1975

Mr Ambassador,

In this solemn act in which Your Excellency presents to us the Letters that accredit you as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Nicaragua to the Holy See, we wish in the first place to thank you for you respectful words and give you our hearty welcome through your person, extended in a manifestation of fatherly affection to all the sons of your noble country.

From the moment of this first meeting with Your Excellency we wish to assure you that, transcending geographical distances, we follow with interest and with hope the legitimate aspirations and achievements of the Nicaraguan people, justly proud of their rich civic and religious traditions, which the Nicaraguan people, justly proud of their rich civic and religious tradition, which they desire to maintain and to develop, aiming at a better future.

Your Excellency referred in your address to our efforts in favour of peace and solidarity to arrive at the common good of mankind. We have certainly wished to give this task an important place in our concern and work, in order to favour the «new spirit» which must animate the society of peoples, and which is based on a new mentality with regard to man, his duties and destiny (cf. our Message for the celebration of «World Peace Day», 8 December 1967).

And this is the line followed by the Church. For this reason, with deep respect for the specific spheres of the State and in faithfulness to her own mission, received from Christ, she will not fail to put all her energies in the service of constant spiritual and human promotion (cf. Populorum Progressio, 13), to which the Nicaraguan people lightly aspire, too. For this complete promotion in justice, and tranquil enjoyment of the inalienable rights of the human person, are the foundation of stable order, serene social life, and the increasing dignity of man, who seeks ever higher goals on the human plane and is a candidate for sublime aims on the divine plane ( cf. Gaudium et Spes. n 12; Octogesima Adveniens, n 40).

Mr Ambassador, At the beginning of your noble mission to the Holy See, we wish for its happy and fruitful accomplishment. We request you to transmit to the President of your country our sincere thanks for the greeting he kindly sent us, and we ask you, at the same time, to convey special regards to our beloved sons of Nicaragua, on whom we invoke from the Almighty the abundance of his gifts.